Eight Years After I First Exposed Fraudulent Monsanto Paper, Corrupt Journal Retracts It

The tobacco journal Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology has long polluted the scientific literature and harmed Americans. It should be shut down.

6 minute read

MAHA activists have gone ga-ga over the retraction of a study published in 2000 that found the Monsanto herbicide Roundup safe, but their glee only shows that industry continues to control the DC policy process. I wrote an in-depth investigation of this study and the journal that published it, Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology, eight years ago, revealing that the society behind the journal, ISRTP, was run by a tobacco consultant and held their meetings in the offices of Keller and Heckman, the chief law firm in DC for the chemical industry.

This one tiny retraction means nothing, and nobody trying to change the culture of public health should celebrate.

Since tobacco consultant Gio Gori began running Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology (Reg Tox Pharm), the journal has contaminated the academic literature with corporate messaging dressed up as peer-reviewed science—studies that still influence current scientific debates and national policies. Tobacco documents reveal that Gori was a paid consultant to Brown and Williamson and the Tobacco Institute which paid Gori $30,077 to write the 1991 paper “Mainstream and environmental tobacco smoke” to downplay documented dangers of secondhand smoke which he then published in Reg Tox Pharm.

Even after tobacco documents revealed Gori’s ties to tobacco companies, he showed no shame and continued to advocate for his financial masters while running the journal. In 2007, Gori published an op-ed in the Washington Post calling the science of secondhand smoke “bogus.”

I have followed the studies published in Reg Tox Pharm for a couple decades now, not because I trust the science, but because I know it’s where industry loves to plant commercials they call science. And I’m very interested in understanding the messages industry sells to the scientific community.

Because industry’s messages packaged in Reg Tox Pharm wrapping paper always help companies defend dirty products: tobacco, pesticides, chemicals, endocrine disruptors, air pollution … you name it.

If you still think retracting one corrupt glyphosate study published by Reg Tox Pharm almost three decades ago is still cause to break out the champagne and a cheese platter, let’s look at what happened just a decade back.

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) released a 2016 report that found genetically engineered crops are safe to eat and do no harm to the environment. The New York Times reported that the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO), which represents companies that sell genetically modified seeds, was “pleased” that the Academies’ study found that “agricultural biotechnology has many demonstrated benefits to farmers, consumers and the environment.’’

The National Academies findings landed at a time when the science was not really clear that GE crops were safe for the environment and human health. Nonetheless, Big Food companies like Coca-Cola, Bayer CropScience, and Archer Daniels Midland had invested in GMO food products and were exploring the technology to create flavorings and sweeteners. To the benefit of these companies, the Academies largely gave GMOs a clean bill of health, concluding that GE crops could not be associated with environmental or safety problems.

And then came the scandals.

An investigative nonprofit called Food & Water Watch discovered that several of the scientists chosen by National Academies to write the report had extensive ties to industry. Worse, the National Academies staffer who chose the scientists was simultaneously applying for a job with a biotechnology group. A Monsanto executive on the biotechnology group’s board was found to have praised the National Academies staffer for his work.

The scandal forced the Academies to deny there was problem with industry influence, before tightening up their conflict of interest rules to police industry influence.

Intrigued, I dug into the report and SURPRISE!!!! I found evidence of industry influence. In the chapter on human health effects of genetically engineered crops, the report cited Reg Tox Pharm studies on seven different occasions.

Here’s a sample screenshot from the National Academies report.

In short, a National Academies staffer seeking a job in the biotech industry picked panelists with ties to biotech companies to write an influential report that alleged no harms in GE agriculture … and that report just happened to be littered with studies published in Reg Tox Pharm—industry’s favorite journal.

That’s a whole lot of coincidences.

Nothing bad befell the National Academies report that, to this day, promotes corporate messaging on GE crops: you can still buy a copy for $62.99. And nothing has happened to any of the other corrupt studies published in Reg Tox Pharm either. The paper that tobacco paid Reg Tox Pharm editor Gio Gori to write “Mainstream and environmental tobacco smoke” has been cited 41 times and can still be purchased for $49.95.

The lead author on the Reg Tox Pharm now-retracted paper from 2000 that found glyphosate was safe is Gary Williams, who was a pathologist at New York Medical College (NYMC) in Valhalla, New York. But NYMC rejected evidence eight years ago that the now-retracted paper was corrupt, after conducting an opaque investigation that apparently concluded within days.

The behavior by NYMC further underlines the venality at American universities where academics will protest against campus buildings named after men who are long dead, but whose past politics they still despise. Yet these same university professors regularly ignore scientific corruption within their own ranks even though it harms Americans who are alive today and whose taxes pay their exorbitant salaries.

The journal Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology should be shut down. It hasn’t published one or two, or even three corrupt studies. Corporations have used Reg Tox Pharm for decades to recast industry talking points into an alternative scientific canon.

At a bare minimum, federal agencies who allow their scientists to serve on the journal’s board—this includes EPA, NIOSH, and FDA—should ban this activity. The harm this journal has done goes well past one corrupt study that claimed glyphosate was safe when it never was. Shutting down this journal will send a strong message that corrupt research should be banished from American society.